摘要

随着全球化进程的进一步加深，具有不同语言及文化背景的人们之间的接触日益增多，跨文化交际已经成为人们交际活动必不可少的重要组成部分。人们在交际过程中，除使用语言符号外，还使用非语言的符号。研究表明，人类的大部分交际活动是通过非言语交际完成的，非言语交际在很大程度上决定了交际的有效性。空间作为人类活动的主要组成部分，对人类的交际活动产生着潜移默化的影响。空间是会说话的语言，不同文化的人拥有不同的空间观，而不同的空间观则是导致跨文化交际误解和失败的一个不容忽视的重要因素。因此，必须把文化差异放在一个重要的位置。通过中美空间文化对比，理解两国的文化差异，提高跨文化意识，从而达到成功交际的目的。

关键词：跨文化；非言语交际；空间观差异；领域

Abstract

With the development of globalization, the interaction between people with different languages and cultural backgrounds increases rapidly, and cross-cultural communication has become an important part in human communicative activities. In the process of communication, people use both verbal symbols and nonverbal symbols. The research shows that most communicative activities are undergoing through nonverbal communication, which to a great extent determines the efficiency of communication. Space is the main component in nonverbal communication, and it exerts a subtle influence on the communicative activities. Space can speaks, and people in different cultures have various views of space, and different views of space are the important factors causing the misunderstanding and failure in cross-cultural communication. Therefore, the problem of cultural differences must be stressed. Through the comparison of spatial cultures between Chinese and Americans，people should try to raise cross-cultural consciousness, and finally reach the aim of successful communication.

Key words: cross-culture; nonverbal communication; spatial differences; territory

1. Introduction
1.1 Research background

As the further intensified process of globalization, people with different languages and cultures come into much contact. Cross-culture communication has become an important and essential part in people’s daily life. During the process of cross-culture communication, people often just emphasize verbal communication, and ignore the non-verbal communication. But in the real life, only 35% of the information is accomplished by language, the rest 65% is accomplished by non verbal communication. Space—as a major part in non-verbal communication is less mentioned. The ignorance of space in different culture will lead to the failure of communication. So it’s quite essential to successful cross-culture communication to compare the spatial differences between Chinese and Americans. People can improve the culture awareness and reduce the culture misunderstandings.